State Publishing House of the RSFSR (
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
: Госуда́рственное изда́тельство РСФСР), also known as Gosizdat (Госиздат), was the State Publishing House founded in the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
on 21 May 1919. It was to become one of the principal
publishing houses in the Soviet Union
Publishing houses in the Soviet Union were a series of publishing enterprises which existed in the Soviet Union.
Centralization
On 8 August 1930, the Sovnarkom of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) established the state p ...
. In 1930 it was superseded by OGIZ (Unified State Publishing House).
History
It was formed at the
People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR on May 20, 1919 in accordance with the Regulations of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee and on the initiative of
Anatoly Lunacharsky
Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (russian: Анато́лий Васи́льевич Лунача́рский) (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People ...
. The publishing house was headed by an editorial board, the chairman and members of which were provided by the People's Commissariat of Education, appointed by the Council of People's Commissars and approved by the All-Russian Central Executive Commission
The decree founding Gosizdat placed all private publishing in
Soviet Russia
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
under their control. Although publishers were required to submit manuscripts before publication, Gosizdat was remarkably inefficient and was unable to enforce this. The most significant problems were lack of paper and maintaining the printing presses. Also the book trade had been municipalised in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
by October 1918, and from April 1919 to autumn 1921 all books were distributed free of charge by
Tsentropechat.
In February 1921, following the report of the
Litkens Commission, Gosizdat was incorporated as a department within
Narkompros The People's Commissariat for Education (or Narkompros; russian: Народный комиссариат просвещения, Наркомпрос, directly translated as the "People's Commissariat for Enlightenment") was the Soviet agency charg ...
.
On October 8, 1930 the publishing house was transformed into the
Association of State Book and Magazine Publishing Houses (OGIZ). In total, in the years 1919–1930, Gosizdat published 29,555 titles of books and brochures with a total circulation of 610.3 million copies.
Directors
* 1919–21
Vatslav Vorovsky
Vatslav Vatslavovich Vorovsky ( Russian: Ва́цлав Ва́цлавович Воро́вский; Polish: Wacław Worowski) (27 October Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._15_October.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title ...
* 1921–24
Otto Shmidt
* 1927–30
Artemic Khalatov
References
{{reflist
Publishing companies of the Soviet Union
Publishing companies established in 1919